Rights to live sporting events continue to inflate the price tag for content. The latest deal ­– for Germany’s Bundesliga soccer league – netted $5.26 billion for rights that include multiple platforms.

Bundesliga made sure no broadcaster got a monopoly on live rights for the next four seasons, divvying them up between Sky Deutschland, Discovery’s Eurosport , German public broadcasters ZDF and ARD, and online streaming platform Perform.

The new deal for the top two divisions of the league represents a whopping 85% premium over the rights for the previous four years, said Bundesliga CEO Christian Seifert, “an important step with regard to the future viability of the top German football.”

In addition to dividing the rights among traditional broadcasters, U.K.-based Perform, which operates several online services in German, bought the rights to stream highlights from the game online and to mobile devices shortly after live matches. Perform is planning to deploy an over-the-top digital service in some European countries later this year.

This isn’t Perform’s first dance with Bundesliga. The platform streamed live and on-demand highlights from league play in 2012/2013, as well as one live game a week, to its customers in Italy on its Goal.com website. That deal came about when the league failed to craft a renewal deal with Sky Italia.

Nearly half of Germany’s population watches the Bundesliga on television.

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